Henry III: Departure (Chapter two)

Note: Read chapter one first.

Hammocks

The day of departure started with a detour to the market to buy a hammock. “If you haven’t got a hammock, you have to sleep on the floor”, they said. Sleeping on the floor didn’t sound quite as appealing so I purchased a hammock and a bit of rope in advance. I arrived early, at 11:00, to get a “good place”. The passenger deck was one big open space where people hanged their hammocks parallel in three rows along the length of the ship; left row, middle row and right row. I chose a space in the middle, as I reckoned it would not be as cold far from the windows, plus it had the advantage of an exit to both walkways on either side. Also, I had an electric socket on a pole next to me to charge batteries. However, as it filled up, people didn’t seem to find enough space in the three rows (even though all hammocks touched each other) so they started hanging them perpendicular in the two walkways, making it almost impossible to walk anywhere. This was going to be interesting.

Delays

Henry transports both passenger and cargo. Unfortunately passengers are also treated as cargo. The scheduled departure was 17:30 in the afternoon but they had not yet completed loading the ship. New departure time was 18:30 and later 20:00. As they still hadn’t finished, and it was dark, new departure time was set to be early morning, around 06:00. Everyone therefore had to sleep an extra night on the passenger deck. I woke up next morning and looked on my phone, it showed 07:00. “We have to be there now”, I thought and looked out of the window. Still docked in the harbour. Later a new departure time was announced to 11:00.

Uneasy crowd

At 11:30, people started to get upset and was banging the windows and walls shouting “it’s time” and “let’s go”. Interesting, I thought and smiled for myself while swinging my hammock, deeply buried in a book. More people now came on board, the ones arriving early for the next lancha, finding out that; “Oh, yesterdays lancha hasn’t left yet, let’s take this one so we get there quicker”. Now they started to hang their hammocks over the tables. There were really no space left, I thought.

Loading problems

I squeezed myself out between the hammocks to the front to watch the people loading the lancha. They were about to drive a big truck on board at the front. The dock was really basic and the captain had to change position of the lancha to load different things and in this moment he had sailed up with the front against the ground. The workers were placing parts of wood for the truck to drive on, only problem they were not placed very good, not even parallel. I could clearly see from above, even before they had started, what was going to happen. “Jesus, this is not going to work, stop it you idiots”. But they continued. A few seconds later the guy waved to the driver and he started to drive the lorry up the ramp and halfway up, the whole thing collapsed and the truck fell. With at least one metre to the ground the truck almost turned over on its side but they were lucky and the truck still seemed to work. With a tractor, they managed to drag the truck back up again, and after placing the wood a bit better, the second attempt was successful. Being on the lancha for 25 hours already, my nerves couldn’t take more of this stupidity and I went back in to my hammock. Shortly new departure time was announced for 16:00.

Departure

Considering that the next lancha (Henry IV) originally was set to departure at 17:30 today (and they hadn’t hardly started to load it yet) a lot of new passenger were flooding in, realising that if they were going to take Henry IV, they would have to wait on board until tomorrow (at least!). Packing the hammocks a bit tighter. Putting hammocks at the exits, blocking off almost everything. And a few hammocks in front of the toilets too.  I would like to see a health- and safety inspector from England having a go at this captain. But finally it actually departed. At 16:30. Happy times.